Things you can learn on a Friday night. Part 2

Jesus does not turn into a conquerer while He is seated on the throne making intercession. He does not turn from lamb to Lion as He sits next to God. The truth is that He has been a conquerer from the first, from before the beginning. This is what He does, who He is. He conquers all things, the external and the internal. He can overcome what we do and what we think. He sets us free from the inside out.

The act of creation itself is the conquering of the what did not exist. He turns nothing into something. He creates people and gives them authority to subdue all things. He gives all authority to a nation and tells them to conquer all other people. This is at the heart of all He commands.

When jesus leaves heaven to come to earth He is not coming to be the lamb. He has always been the lamb. This is our Jesus. The truth is that He is not lion on some days and lamb on other days. He is in fact a lion-like-lamb on all days. He is always conquering, always sacrificing. He overcomes all things through his life and through his sacrifice. When Jesus walks the earth He is at all times lion-like-lambing. He is teaching with authority, healing with authority, casting out demons with authority. And all the while He is meek and humble and feeding others and forgiving sins.

This Jesus is broken hearted for the broken and He is strong with the strong willed. The same Jesus who feeds the masses is the same one who patiently forms a whip to clear out the temple. There is no difference, no two sides of a coin. This is who He is.

It is surely amazing that He lives a sinless life. But equally striking is that He never once puts Himself first. (perhaps the key to sinlessness) He never once thinks "what would Jesus do." He is so fully selfless that He only does what He sees the Father do or what would be best for men. This is critical. Make no mistake: He absolutely puts His desire to see us come into perfection before His own desires. Jesus is driven to see that we would have what would be best for us. Now that is crazy talk. He goes to the cross and cries out "not my will but Yours." He does it because He does what the Father says in all things and He wants to do what is best for man in that same instant. He conquers the cross. At any moment He could have come down, saved Himself and given us the hell we all deserve. He is not defeated by the cross to then conquer death. That is an absurd teaching. He conquers all things. That is what it means to be lion-lamb-like.